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Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire 3 

Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough 

Mary, Honorable Mrs. Graham 15 

Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough. 

Emma, Lady Hamilton 25 

Portrait by George Romney. 

Mrs. Sheridan 37 

Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

Marguerite, Countess Blessington 51 

Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 

Mary Lsabella, Duchess of Rutland 65 

Portrait l)y Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

Lavinia, Countess Spencer 77 

Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. 



I 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton 89 

Portrait by Catharine Read. 

Maria, Countess of Coventry loi 

Portrait by Gavin Hamilton. 

Elizabeth, Countess Grosvenor 113 

Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 




^ 



GLODGIAN/V 
DU(nD5or 



QAmmiom 




-^<^ 



The Dashing Duchess, — the im- 
pulsive, ebullient beauty whose smile 
swayed ministers, and for whose favor 
princes were beggars! A loveliness of 
manner, as of feature, such seductive 
^^^color, — glowing carnations, — and such 
golden-brown hair, with a fine figure, 
made up an opulent personality, than 
which no more consummate type of 
beauty has been preserved to us by 
painter or poet. 
Georgiana Spencer was the daughter of 
Lord Spencer, afterwards first Earl Spencer; but 
her impulsiveness, her waywardness, and improvi- 
dence were a legacy from her grandfather, "Jack" 
Spencer, the grandson and special favorite of 
the beautiful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. 
Her " Torismond," she called him. His was a 



4 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

career of profligacy, a course of error and extrav- 
agance. His mother was Lady Sunderland, 
known in society as " the little Whig," from her 
small stature and her persistent politics. Her 
party badge was always worn, — the black patch 
on the left side of the face, as distinguished from 
the Tory fashion of wearing it on the right side. 
So Georgiana came legitimately by her beauty, 
her Whiggish politics, and her versatile vivacity 
of manner, as well as her improvidence and 
indiscretion. 

But her mother's strong character was a potent 
influence. She was the daughter of the Right 
Honorable Stephen Poyntz, and was of high 
repute for generosity, for sensibility, for charity, 
and for courteous dignity of demeanor. We 
hear of Georgiana being a beautiful child ; and 
Reynolds as well as Gainsborough, both made 
painted record of that childish beauty. Her 
brightness of mind gave her an interest in art, 
in music, and in literature ; and, though not 
proficient in the practice of either, she had 
more than the society woman's knowledge of 
them. 



DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



At seventeen, she married William, fifth Duke 
of Devonshire, ten years her senior. His was a 
temperament antipathetic to hers, — unsympa- 
thetic, unimpressionable, and taciturn, yet withal 
of the Cavendish characteristic persistency of 
purpose and honest intent. 

The Duchess at once became a queen of 
society in the Carlton House Court. Devon- 
shire House was an assembly place for the 
Whigs; and its lovely mistress was the hostess 
of many a statesman exalted by his wit, as of 
many a politician with following by virtue of his 
station. Like all radical companies, it was a 
motley mixture that found welcome there. The 
Prince of Wales was a devotee. The then 
shining Sheridan was a frequenter; but with 
the name of Fox has that of the Duchess been 
more associated than of auorht other. Her 
supremacy among these companions was not 
in the manner of the French Salon leaders, — 
while wit, knowledge, and tact were hers, she 
lived not by learning, but by her liveliness and 
jollity. She was not the scholar in politics, but 
the politician among scholars out of school. 



6 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

It was a roystering, revelling company; and 
political as well as personal penury became the 
portion of many as the result of these improvi- 
dent and profligate days. The episode of the 
Duchess's career which is most known, is her 
purchase, by a kiss, of a vote for Fox when she 
was championing his cause in an election, and 
canvassing for votes in company with her sister, 
Lady Duncannon. It was said, " never before 
had two such lovely portraits appeared on a 
canvass." A butcher bargained for his vote by 
asking a kiss from the lovely lips of the seductive 
Duchess. The price was paid, amid the plaudits 
of the crowd. An Irish elector, impressed by 
the fair appellant's vivacity, exclaimed: "I could 
light my pipe at her eyes." 

Fox was elected for the Tory borough of 
Westminster, and great was the rejoicing at 
Carlton House. A fete vi^as given on the 
grounds the day following, and the ordinarily 
well-apparelled Prince appeared in a superb 
costume of the radical colors, blue and buff. 
This was the period of the Duchess's greatest 
glory, as well as of her most superb charm of 



DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. 7 

personality; and it was about this period that 
Gainsborough painted his perennially delightful 
presentment of her. She was then twenty-seven 
years of age, and had been married ten years. 
Wraxall wrote what is probably the best con- 
temporary description of her : " The personal 
charms of the Duchess of Devonshire constituted 
her smallest pretensions to universal admiration; 
nor did her beauty consist, like that of the 
Gunnings, in regularity of features, and faultless 
formation of limbs and shape; it lay in the 
amenity and graces of her deportment, in her 
irresistible manners, and the seduction of her 
society. Her hair was not without a tinge of 
red; and her face, though pleasing, yet, had it 
not been illuminated by her mind, might have 
been considered an ordinary countenance." 

It is said of Gainsborough that, while painting 
the Duchess, "he drew his wet pencil across a 
mouth all thought exquisitely lovely, saying, 
' Her Grace is too hard for me.' " 

The lady later knew the cuts of comment, 
and the keen pain of justifiable jealousy. The 
rival in her husband's attentions was Lady 



8 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, 
a brunette of handsome presence, and at the 
death of Georgiana, in 1806, she became the 
second wife of the Duke. There was an appar- 
ent friendship between the ladies, and Lady 
Elizabeth for a time lived under the same roof 
as the Duchess. 

Madame d'Arblay, in 1791, visited her at Bath, 
and made record then of her introduction to 
the Duchess, and indicated the premonition of 
trouble in this wise. " Presently followed two 
ladies; Lady Spencer, with a look and manner 
warmly announcing pleasure in what she was 
doing, then introduced me to the first of them, 
saying, ' Duchess of Devonshire, Miss Burney.' 
She made me a very civil compliment upon 
hoping my health was recovering; and Lady 
Spencer then, slightly, and as if unavoidably, said, 
' Lady Elizabeth Foster.' " Gibbon said of the 
latter, that, " No man could withstand her; and 
that if she chose to beckon the Lord Chancellor 
from his woolsack, in full sis^ht of the world, he 
could not resist obedience." Reynolds painted 
a portrait of her, showing a bright-eyed, smiling 



DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. 9 

lady, with close-curled hair, of girlish appearance. 
In Samuel Rogers's "Table Talk" are several 
mentions of the famous Georgiana, and especially 
one which tells of her love for gamblino-. " Gam- 
ing was the rage during her day; she indulged 
in it, and was made miserable by her debts. A 
faro-table was kept by IMartindale, at which the 
Duchess and other high fashionables used to 
play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and 
Martindale had agreed that whatever they two 
won from each other should be sometimes double, 
sometimes treble, what it was called. And Sheri- 
dan assured me that he had handed the Duchess 
into her carriage when she was literally sobbing 
at her losses, she having lost fifteen hundred 
pounds, when it was supposed to be only five 
hundred pounds." A life such as she tlien led 
surely affected her appearance. In 1783, Wal- 
pole wrote: "The Duchess of Devonshire, the 
empress of fashion, is no beauty at all. She 
was a very fine woman, with all the freshness 
of youth and health, but verges fast to a 
coarseness." 

The offspring of the Duchess Georgiana were: 



lO SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Georgiana Dorothy, afterwards Countess Carlisle, 
whose letters were lately published, and exhibit an 
original observation and a terse style of record; 
Henrietta Elizabeth, later Countess Granville ; 
and a son, who succeeded to the Dukedom. 
About the latter's birth was some mystery; 
insinuation was active. The Duchess had little 
liking for domestic life, so normal neglect of 
child may have been construed into an unnatural 
dislike. Her son never married. Through the 
stress of the home infelicity, her beauty waned; 
but her bearing and breeding kept her para- 
mount in her set. She is known to this later 
generation only as a superb beauty who stauds 
with such opulent charm of costume, and of 
fine hauteur of manner, amid the noble oroves 
of Chatsworth — as the once potential original 
of Gainsborough's greatest portrait. " The bust 
outlasts the throne, the coin Tiberius." 

A most pathetic tribute to the beauty of the 
Duchess was paid by " Peter Pindar" (Dr. Wol- 
cot), who addressed " A Petition to Time in 
favor of the Duchess of Devonshire," and im- 
plored the Inexorable thus: — 



DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. H 

" Hurt not the form that all admire. 
Oh, never with white hairs her temple sprinkle ! 
Oh, sacred be her cheek, her lip, her bloom ! 
And do not, in a lovely dimple's room, 
Place a hard mortifying wrinkle. 

' Know shouldst thou bid the beauteous duchess fade, 
Thou, therefore, must thy own delights invade ; 
And know, 't will be a long, long while 
Before thou givest her equal to our isle. 
Then do not with this sweet chef-d''oeuvre part. 
But keep to show the triumph of thy art." 

A dramatic fate has befallen the original can- 
vas. In 1875, it was sold at auction, and was 
bought b}^ a firm of dealers for the then highest 
price paid for a single picture in England. The 
publicity gained by this was taken advantage of 
by the purchasers to exhibit the picture. One 
morning when the gallery was opened, the frame 
only was there ; the picture had vanished. The 
famous canvas is lost. 




ofne^ 



ippiest countries 
no history, the tran- 
joyous content leaves 
ronicle. Only in the 
laracter of a husband 
her loss for years, 
and in his strong dignity, and de- 
votion to her memory, do we get 
a hint of the gracious and good 
lady whom Gainsborough has made 
immortal for us. 
And in that phrase of her lifetime, 
" lovely Mary Cathcart," is a whole biography 
of benignity and beauty. She came of one of 
the most ancient and noble families in Scot- 
land, and was the daughter of the ninth Baron 
Cathcart, called " Cathcart of Fontenoy." Her 
brother William became the tenth Baron, and 
afterwards the first Earl Cathcart. He had 



l6 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Studied law, but abandoned it for the army, and 
had a gallant career therein ; becoming a lieu- 
tenant-general in 1801, and commander-in-chief 
of the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807; after- 
wards acquiring reputation as ambassador for 
several years at St. Petersburg. He was per- 
haps the earliest of British noblemen to marry 
American beauties ; having wedded the daughter 
of Andrew Elliott of New York, in 1779. 

In November, 1774, there was rejoicing among 
the retainers of the fiouse of Cathcart, for 
there was to be a double wedding. The eldest 
daughter, " Jenny," was married to the Duke of 
Athole, — that same Duke who became a friendly 
patron of Burns, and in reference to whom the 
poet writes, when addressing some verses to him : 
" It eases my heart a good deal, as rhyme is the 
coin with which a poet pays his debts of honor 
and gratitude. What I owe to the noble family 
of Athole, of the first kind, I shall ever proudly 
boast; what I owe of the last, so help me God, 
in my hour of need I shall never forget." 

The second sister, the Hon. Mary, was married 
to Sir Thomas Graham of Balgowan, a descend- 



THE HONORABLE MRS. GRAHAM. 1 7 

ant of the Marquis of Montrose and of Graham 
of Claverhouse. The youngest sister, Louisa, 
later became Countess of Mansfield, and her 
portrait, by Romney, — a seated profile figure 
with flowing draperies, — is that artist's most 
masterly work. 

After eighteen years of happy married life, 
she died childless ; one of those good women 
that were — 

"True in loving all their lives," — 

"a surpassing spirit whose light adorned the 
world around it." Her husband grieved greatly. 
He was ordered to travel to divert his despair. 
He visited Gibraltar, and there the dormant 
martial spirit of his ancestors was aroused by 
his environment. Though then forty-three years 
of age, he immediately entered the army as a vol- 
unteer. He rapidly rose in his profession, and 
had an especially brilliant career in the Peninsular 
War. In i8ii,he became the hero of Barossa, 
and in the same year was made second in com- 
mand to the Duke of Wellino^ton. He was 
created Lord Lynedoch of Balgowan, Perthshire, 



1 8 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

and frequently was thanked by Parliament for 
his services. Sheridan said, " Never was there 
a loftier spirit in a braver heart." And alluding 
to his services during the retreat to Corunna, 
he said, " Graham was their best adviser in the 
hour of peril ; and in the hour of disaster, their 
surest consolation." Scott eulogizes him in the 
poem, " The Vision of Don Roderick," in the 
lines, — 

" Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide 
Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound, 
Whose wish Heaven for his country's weal denied ; 
Danger and fate, he sought, but glory found. 

" From clime to clime, wher'e'r war's trumpets sound, 
The wanderer went ; yet, Caledonia, still 
Thine was his thought in march and tented ground ; 
He dreamed mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill, 
And heard in Ebro's roar his Lynedoch's lovely rill. 

" O hero of a race renowned of old. 
Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle swell ! " 

Old Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, wrote of 
a late Duke of Athole : " Courage, endurance, 
stanchness, fidelity, and warmth of heart, sim- 
plicity, and downrightness, were his staples." 



THE HONORABLE MRS. GRAHAM. I9 

They are ever the staples of the Scotch char- 
acter, and they were all pre-eminent in Sir 
Thomas. His life was noble, and his affection 
was faithful to its early troth. 

A pathetic history attaches to this picture of 
Mrs. Graham: When its subject died, the sor- 
rowing husband had it bricked up where it hung, 
and it was only by an accident that it was dis- 
covered at his death, in 1843. It now hangs in 
the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh. 
The present reproduction shows but a part of 
the picture, the figure being full length. It has 
been excellently reproduced in etching by both 
Flameng and Waltner. 

In 1885, a most comprehensive exhibition of 
Gainsborough's works was made at the Gros- 
venor Gallery in London. At it was noted the 
important part this painter had played in per- 
petuating the lineaments, bearing, graces, and 
gownings of the great persons of the latter half 
of the eighteenth century. 

"The lips that laughed an age agone, 
The fops, the dukes, the beauties all, 
Le Brun that sang and Carr that shone." 



20 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

There was seen The Hon. Miss Georgiana 
Spencer, at the age of six, and again a later 
portrait of her as the Duchess of Devonshire, — 
she of the then irresistibly seductive manners, — 
and her mother. Countess Spencer, of whom 
Walpole wrote as being one of the beauties 
present at the coronation of George III., in 
1 76 1. There, too, was Anne Luttrell, daughter 
of Simon Luttrell, Baron Irnham, who married, 
first, Christopher Horton, and, secondly, the 
Duke of Cumberland, brother of the king. Of 
her Walpole wrote : " There was something so 
bewitching in her languishing eyes, which she 
could animate to enchantment if she pleased, 
and her coquetry w^as so active, so varied, and 
yet so habitual that it was difficult not to see- 
through it, and yet as difficult to resist it." And 
here was another widow who captivated royalty,. 
Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was a daughter of Walter 
Smythe of Bambridge, Hampshire, and married, 
first, Edward Weld, secondly, Thomas Fitzher- 
bert of Synnerton, Staffordshire (who died in 
1 781), and was said to have been married to 
the Prince of Wales (George IV.) in 1785.. 



THE HONORABLE MRS. GRAHAM. 21 

And there also was a more notorious beauty, 
Miss Grace Dalrymple, afterwards Mrs. Elliott, — 
though divorced later, and becoming the mis- 
tress of various aristocrats, notably the Duke 
of Orleans. 

The Duchess of Montagu, granddaughter of 
the great Duke of Marlborough (one of the 
Churchills, — a family prolific of beauties), was 
there seen. Several pictures of the painter's wife 
(who was a Miss Margaret Burr), of his youngest 
daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs. Fischer, and 
one of his friend. Miss Linley, went to aug- 
ment this superb congregation of beauties shown. 
Portraits of Garrick, — that intensely interest- 
ing Stratford portrait, — Earl Spencer, Pitt, Earl 
Stanhope, Colonel St. Leger, George IV., Duke 
of Cumberland, George III., Earl Cathcart, Can- 
ning, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and several showings of 
himself, made up a body of work unsurpassed 
in importance by that of the president of the 
Academy himself. 

Gainsborough was born in 1727; he moved 
to Bath, in its most brilliant period, in 1760. 
He died in 1788, but had ceased contributing 



2 2 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

to the Academy four years before, because of a 
disagreement with the hanging committee. His 
portraits of ladies were always picturesque and 
individual, each differentiated from each of his 
own works as well as from that of other 
painters. 

This portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham is 
delicate in color, — yellowed somewhat by its 
long seclusion from the light, — and will remain 
one of the most delightful and spirituel creations 
of the old English school. 




AMILJON 

With the name of Lady Hamil- 
7 'jm ton is ever associated the names of 



England's most famous sailor and 

of one of her most famous painters. 

Hers was a Hfe redolent of ill-repute. 

Though her beauty was great, it 

served her for ill purposes ; but she 

came by her lack of character by 

heredity. She was born in 1761, the 

"^ daughter of a female servant named Harte, 

J)|\ and at the age of thirteen was put to 

^^y) service as a nurse in the house of a Mr. 

^-0 Thomas of Hawarden, Flintshire. She 

found tendinor children a tedious task, and for- 

sook it. At sixteen, she went to London, and 

became a lady's maid there. Her leisure time 

was spent in reading novels and plays, which 

inspired a love for the drama. She early 




26 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

developed a rare ability for pantomimic repre- 
sentation ; and this became a favorite form of 
entertainment in drawing-rooms and studios. 
Her duties as a domestic agreed not with the 
drama, so her next position was as barmaid 
in a tavern much frequented by actors and 
artists. She formed the acquaintance of a 
Welsh youth, on whose being impressed into the 
navy, she went to the captain to intercede for 
him. The boy was liberated, but the comely 
intercessor was impressed into the service of 
the captain. From him she went to live with 
a man of wealth ; but her extravagance and 
wilfulness induced him to forego her company. 
Then followed a period of the lowest street 
degradation. From this state she was taken 
by a Dr. Graham, who was a lecturer upon 
health, and exhibited the finely-formed Emma 
as a perfect specimen of female symmetry. 
She became the topic of the town. Painters, 
sculptors, and others came to admire the shapely 
limbs shown under but a thin veil of orauze. 

O 

The young bloods of the time worshipped, — 
some not afar off; and one of them, Charles 



LADY HAMILTON, 



27 



Greville, of the Warwick family, who had essayed 
to educate her to become a fit companion for 
his elevated existence, maintained her for about 
four years. It is recorded, that when he took her 
to Ranelagh's the sensation was greater than 
had ever been produced by any other beauty 
there. Not the winsome and witty Mrs, Crewe, 
nor her friend Mrs. Bouverie ; not that first flame 
of the amorous Prince of Wales, Mrs. Robinson, 
nor Anne Luttrell, also beloved of royalty ; 
not the Marchioness of Tavistock, whose loveli- 
ness has been preserved to us by Sir Joshua, nor 
the delightful Duchess of Buccleugh ; not Lady 
Cadogan, and not even the dashing Duchess of 
Devonshire herself, — caused the comment and 
admiration this low-born unprincipled young 
woman now excited. Mr. Greville would have 
married her had not his uncle, Sir William 
Hamilton, interfered. It is variously stated 
that Sir William, agreed to pay his nephew's 
debts if he would yield up his mistress ; and 
also that, in endeavoring to free the young 
man, the old gentleman himself fell into the 
snare of her charms. " She is better than any- 



28 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

thing in Nature. In her own particular way 
she is finer than anything that is to be found 
in Greek art," exclaimed this savant on first see- 
ins: her. She was a most enchantino- deceiver, 
and a finished actress in the parts of candor 
and simplicity, so succeeded in marrying Sir 
William, in 1791. He was over sixty years of 
ase, a man of much classical and scientific 
erudition, and had been for many years ambas- 
sador at the court of Naples, to which place 
he was soon accompanied by his bride. She 
became a favorite with the queen, and a frequent 
visitor at the palace, also somewhat of a social 
success among the British residents. She sang 
well, and made a specialty of showing herself in 
" attitudes," or what we term now " living pic- 
tures," for the delectation of her guests. " You 
never saw anything so charming as Lady 
Hamilton's attitudes," wrote the Countess of 
Malmesbury to her sister, Lady Elliot ; " the most 
graceful statues or pictures do not give you an 
idea of them. Her dancing the Tarantella is 
beautiful to a degree." It was here began that 
intimacy with Nelson which became the great 



LADY HAMILTON. 29 

blot on his fair fame. He was then com- 
manding the Agamemnon, and she became his 
constant companion, and was sometimes useful 
to him as a poKtical agent. After the victory 
of Aboukir Bay, when Naples went wild in its 
enthusiastic reception of the naval hero, Lady 
Hamilton shared the honors of the pageant. 
She accompanied him in a tour through Ger- 
many ; and most reprehensible was their conduct, 
at times, in defying the decencies of polite life. 
After the Treaty of Amiens, Nelson, accom- 
panied by Sir William and Lady Hamilton, 
retired to his seat at Merton, in Surrey, and 
on the death of the ambassador, in 1803, he 
vainly endeavored to procure an allowance from 
the government for the widow, on the pretext 
of the services she had rendered the fleet in 
Sicily. Failing this, he himself granted her an 
annuity of twelve hundred pounds. We all 
know how at Trafalgar, when the hero was 
dying, he spoke of "dear Lady Hamilton, his 
guardian angel," and left to her all his belong- 
ings, and recommended her to the grateful care 
of his country. Notwithstanding this, she died 



30 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

almost in poverty, in 1815. In 1813 she had 
been imprisoned for debt, and when out on bail 
she fled to Calais, and there the career was 
closed. It was extraordinary that this woman 
should subjugate and hold in thrall men of 
great force of character. She had great loveli- 
ness of person ; but physical beauty alone is 
ineffectual to charm such as these. Though 
not regularly educated, she acquired much gen- 
eral knowledge, and was tactful in the display 
and use of it. 

It was during the period of her posing for 
Dr. Graham, that Romney became enamoured 
of her beauty, and painted for us more than a 
dozen important pictures of her. Those were 
the days when ladies of rank and beauty were 
deified; and, following this fashion, Romney 
rendered " Fair Emma " in many guises. Her 
ability in acting made her a most useful model. 
Her features had much mobility, and were cap- 
able of expressing, with facility, all gradations 
of passion and niceties of feeling. Emma took 
pride and pleasure in serving Romney. He 
repeated to his friend, the poet Hayley, her 



LADY HAMILTON. 



31 



request, that in the biography of the painter, 
Hayley would have much to say of her. One 
of his earhest classical conceptions painted from 
her, was a full length of Circe with her wand. 
Following this was a " Sensibility," which became 
the property of Hayley. Though we remember 
Romney chiefly in connection with his Lady 
Hamiltons, yet he had acquired his reputation 
and much fortune ere he met her. The sreat 
bulk of his portrayals of the nobility preceded 
his classical subjects, which took form from his 
superb model. She was Cassandra; she was 
Iphigenia, St. C^ecilia, Bacchante, Calope, The 
Spinstress, Joan of Arc, The Pythian Princess 
Calypso, and Magdalene, — the two latter sub- 
jects painted to order for the then Prince of 
Wales. 

Allan Cunningham has this to say in his 
sketch of Romney 's life : " A lady in the char- 
acter of a saint. This sort of flattery, once so 
prevalent with painters, is now nearly w'orn out : 
we have now no Lady Betty's enacting the part 
of Diana ; no Lady Jane's tripping it barefoot 
among the thorns and brambles of this weary 



32 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

world, in the character of Hebe. We have none 
now who either 'sinner it or saint it' on can- 
vas; the flattery which the painter has to pay 
is of a more scientific kind, — he has to trust 
alone to the truth of his drawing and the 
harmony of his colors." 

Romney was a transgressor in this way at 
times ; but Lady Hamilton's form was used to 
impart correct form to the conceptions of the 
painter, — not the theme used merely to exploit 
the beauty of the lady. In the exhibition of fair 
women in the Grafton Gallery in London this 
summer, she greeted us in the guise of Ariadne. 
In this the painter's use of the titl? was apt and 
justifiable. Here is the lady wholly clothed in 
the dress of the time, — a dress superb in its 
simplicity ; but her pose and mien is indicative 
of the forsaken, the forlorn, despairing woman 
abandoned by her lover, — the fate of which the 
old story of the Greeks is the eternal epitome. 
The pathos of the pose, it may have been, as 
well as the classic face, allured the wanderer 
in the galleries, and anchored him before this 
canvas. 



LADY HAMILTON. 33 

The fame of Romney has steadily risen in 
the several generations from the beginning to 
the end of the century. Though the painter 
of many men of fame and ladies of fashion, his 
work was not held in the greatest regard in his 
lifetime. Though often spoken of as the rival 
of Reynolds, he had not the president's grasp 
of character or his ability in giving classic 
grace to the dress of the period, and he was 
never admitted as a member to the Academy. 

When Lady Hamilton commenced posing for 
him, he, perhaps wisely for his fame, reduced 
the number of his ordinary sitters, receiving 
none until afternoon. The picturing of what he 
termed " her divine beauty " became a passion 
with him ; and the enthusiasm of the sitter was 
nearly as great as that of the painter, and she 
enacted his classic conceptions. The result is 
a superb series of pictures of faultless female 
form, and loveliness of feature. Of the model's 
immoral career we have naught now to do. 
Here is perpetual beauty, and it is ours to 
enjoy. 




There are few names more associated with 
the brilliant days of Bath, the days of its social 
and artistic prominence, than those of Thomas 
Linley, the composer, and of his daughter, Eliza 
Anne, known abroad as "the Fair Maid of Bath." 
Linley was born there, in 1735; and after his 
studies in music on the Continent, under Para- 
dies, he returned to the then fashionable city 
on the Avon. He conducted oratorios and 
concerts there, and became a power in the 
community. Delicacy, tenderness, simplicity, 
and taste were the characteristics of his com- 
positions. It was said of him, that as Garrick 
had restored Shakspeare, so Linley has restored 
the sublime music of Handel. He trained his 
family to take part in the performances. His 



38 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

son Thomas, born in 1756, developed a mar- 
vellous ability in music, — playing the violin 
with great brilliancy and expression. He was 
the friend of Mozart, and took at times his 
father's place as conductor of the oratorios. 
His career was cut short by drowning, in 
1778. 

But it was his beautiful daughter Eliza, born 
in 1754, who made the sensation of the time, 
when she sang with her sister, afterwards Mrs. 
Tickell. " A nest of nightingales," the family 
was termed. Walpole writes, in 1773: "I was 
not at the ball last night, and have only been 
to the opera, where I was infinitely struck with 
the Carrara, who is the prettiest creature upon 
earth. Mrs. Hartley I own to still find hand- 
somer, and Miss Linley, to be the superlative 
degree. The king admires the last, and ogles 
her as much as he dares to do in so holy a 
place as an oratorio, and at so devout a service 
as ' Alexander's Feast.' " Musical prominence 
and personal beauty in this maid of but twenty 
made her an attractive flower in bloom to others 
than the king. The wits and gallants of the 



MRS. SHERIDAN. 39 

gay city sought and courted her. The family 
of Tom Sheridan, the Irish actor, and then a 
teacher of elocution in Bath, was intimate with 
the Linley family. Richard, who was born in 
Dublin in 1751, his elder brother Charles, and 
Nathaniel Halhed, a companion and literary 
partner with Richard, all admired the daughter 
Eliza. Halhed went to India, — afterwards 
becoming a judge there, — and Charles Sheridan 
retired from the race, and left the literary youth 
to win as pure a heart as ever cheered incipient 
senius to works of worth. She was lauded in 
verse by her young Irish suitor, and championed 
in deed. He asserts his constancy in a poem, 
of which the first stanza is — 

" Dry that tear, my gentlest love ; 
Be hushed that struggling sigh ; 
Nor seasons, day, nor fate shall prove 
More fixed, more true than I. 
Hushed be that sigh, be dry that tear ; 
Cease boding doubt, cease anxious fear ; 
Dry be that tear." 

He proves his devotion by his action when ap- 
pealed to by his divinity. 



40 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

A certain Captain Matthews, one of a nu- 
merous breed in Bath in those days, — that is, 
a fashionable scoundrel and a married man, — 
made himself obnoxious to Miss Linley by im- 
proper addresses. He annoyed and harassed, 
her, threatening to destroy himself unless she 
gratified him, and later attempted to sully her 
reputation by calumnies. This brought about 
the culmination of her attachment to Sheridan. 
She fled her father's house and sought the 
protection of her lover. Accompanied by a 
chaperon, they left for France. After some 
romantic adventures, they were married in 
March, 1772, at a little village near Calais; 
but it was a wedding without the wherewithal 
to maintain a home, so the bride entered a 
convent, and, later, the house of an English 
physician, until literature should be remunera- 
tive. The eloping lady's father sought the 
runaways ; and, after some explanations, they 
returned with him to England. It was shortly 
after this that Sheridan fought two duels with 
Matthews, being wounded in the later one to 
such an extent that his recovery was doubtful. 



MRS. SHERIDAN. 



41 



" Sweet Betsy " claimed the right of a wife to 
tend her hurt husband, and so revealed the 
fact of the marriage in France. The old actor 
rejected his impulsive son, but Linley's aversion 
to the union of his daughter being at last set 
aside, the pair were re-married in England in 
April, 1773. 

The sweet singer had been admired by an- 
other, an elderly suitor of much fortune, whom 
her father had approved, but to whom she was 
averse. This gentleman now became the bene- 
factor of the pair. He settled a moiety of three 
thousand pounds on the bride. Her father re- 
tained half of this as compensation for the loss 
of the services of his daughter. On the balance, 
the youthful couple lived. Sheridan had entered 
himself a student of the Middle Temple shortly 
before his marriage. Though their income was 
small, he would not allow his wife to accept 
several proffered professional engagements; he 
did not wish his helpmeet to become a servant 
of the public. This action incited some discus- 
sion, and much acrimonious comment, in her 
family and among their friends. Johnson upheld 



42 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

his course. Sheridan, in this instance, under- 
stood himself and understood the times. He 
knew of the flippant attitude of the young blades 
of the town toward all public performers ; so he 
sought to save her, who was so sacred to him, 
from such insult, insincere adulation, and in- 
sinuation as she had heretofore suffered from. 
They retired to a cottage at East Burnham; 
and there she, who had received the plaudits of 
the public as a vocalist, won as noble a name 
in the character of the ideal wife, one in whom 
were united all the attributes of loveliness, — 
temper, manners, virtues, and surpassing beauty. 
What the then public lost, later generations have 
gained in the picture of that lovable woman, 
making a golden age of happiness for her 
greatly-gifted husband in the little cottage at 
East Burnham. 

Fanny Burney records her pleasant impres- 
sions of the bride, — "I was absolutely charmed 
at the sight of her. I think her quite as beau- 
tiful as ever, and even more captivating ; for 
she has now a look of ease and happiness that 
animates her whole face. Miss Linley was with 



MRS. SHERIDAN. 43 

her ; she is very handsome, but nothing near her 
sister; the elegance of Mrs. Sheridan's beauty 
is unequalled by any I ever saw, except Mrs. 
Crewe. I was pleased with her in all respects. 
She is much more lively and agreeable than I 
had any idea of finding her ; she was very gay, 
and very unaffected, and totally free from airs of 
any kind.' 

In 1775, the husband's genius was acknowl- 
edged by the town ; for in January, that year, 
was first presented " The Rivals." In that play 
he draws from the material displayed by the 
superficial, flashing, and piquant society of the 
day at Bath, and from his own experience the 
inimitable duel scene therein. 

Much success followed for the dramatist. In 
the following year, in conjunction with his 
father-in-law, he purchased from Garrick the 
Drury Lane Theatre. They brought out sev- 
eral operas together; Linley's music in "The 
Duenna " and " The Beggar's Opera," being 
especially fine. Hazlitt speaks of the songs in 
them as having a joyous spirit of intoxication, 
and strains of the most melting tenderness. 



44 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

In 1777, appeared "The School for Scandal," 
a theme also suggested by scandal-mongering 
Bath. His fond and faithful wife lived not to 
see the dimming of the genius that produced 
these classics ; she died of a decline, at Bristol, 
in 1792. Her daughter, too, died within the 
same year. Two of her accomplished descend- 
ants, through her son, have displayed some of 
her romantic taste and charm of manner to a 
generation just preceding our own, — her grand- 
daughters, Lady Dufferin, mother of the English 
ambassador to France, and Hon. Caroline Norton, 
author of " Love not, love not, ye hapless sons 
of men." 

ThouQ^h she whom he had adored was but 
three years dead, Sheridan married, in 1795, 
Esther Jane Ogle, daughter of the Dean of 
Winchester. With her he obtained some money 
and this, added to his own, purchased the estate 
of Polesdon, in Surrey. His wife was, at that 
time, spoken of as young, amiable, and devoted 
to him. She died at about the same time as 
he, in 1816. 

In the first flush of those romantic wedded 



MRS. SHERIDAN. 



45 



days of their youth how impressive must have 
been the appearance of that markedly clever 
young man, eager in the fight for fame, and 
of his beauteous bride from Bath. Reynolds 
painted, in 1779, the standard presentment of 
Sheridan. Walpole's comment on it was : " Praise 
cannot overstate the merits of this portrait. It 
is not canvas and color, it is animated nature, — 
all the unaffected manner and character of the 
great original." The artist said that among all 
his sitters none had such large pupils of the 
eyes. With the brilliance of that mind informing 
the face, his features, though not regular, were 
handsome. Of all the portraits of Miss Linley, 
perhaps the one by Gainsborough, in which she 
is portrayed with her young brother, gives the 
best idea of the special character of her type of 
beauty. Here are the large lustrous eyes and 
the very delicately modelled, sensitive, refined 
features ; here, the luxuriant hair, the slender 
neck, and the sloping shoulders ; and here, the 
superb poise of head and of mind. There is 
another fine picture of her by Gainsborough, 
for this painter was one of the brilliant men 



46 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

who frequented her father's house at Bath. A 
musician he was, too, and an excellent performer 
on the violin, so was congenial company in that 
musical family. He admired the daughter, and 
wrought for us the delightful records of her 
beauty. His change of residence, from Bath 
to London, coincided in date with that of the 
Sheridans. Opie, too, painted her portrait ; not 
an ideal one, but good in respect to her eyes. 
And Romney has given us good pictures both 
of her and Mrs. Tickell. Reynolds's portrayal 
is supreme in indicating the exaltation of spirit, 
by the poise of head and perfection of profile. 
This picture of her as the patron saint of song 
was exhibited at the Academy, in 1775, just 
about the time its subject had abandoned public 
singing. It has been most beautifully engraved 
by Bartolozzi, and ranks as one of his best 
plates. When the days of sorrow came to 
Sheridan, — when his weaknesses of character 
brought him to a low estate ; when poverty 
became his portion, and the long lost days of 
romantic love became but a memory ; when 
treasure after treasure, manuscripts, and sump- 



MRS. SHERIDAN. 



47 



taous books were disposed of, and presentation 
pictures were pawned, — this picture of St. 
Caecilia, a reminder of the days that had 
vanished, was the last valued possession to be 
parted with. 





Tpie brilliant Blessington, — bril- 
liant in beauty and in intellect ! 
Throughout her life of romance 
she was fortunate in her literary 
friendships, through whom a knowledge 
of her abilities has grown to tradition, but 
most fortunate in the portrayer of her 
beauty. Lawrence has painted a picture 
which it is a perpetual pleasure to 
behold, — the superb arms and shoul- 
ders, the serene, steadfast gaze of the 
eyes, and the conscious, yet confi- 
dent, poise of the head forming a record to justify 
the tradition of great personal beauty and alert- 
ness of mind. 

Marguerite Blessington's youth was ill-regulated 
and penurious. She was born in 1789, the sec- 
ond daughter of Edmund Power, of Knockbrit, 



52 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

near Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. Her 
father came of a good family, as did also her 
mother, who spoke unduly often of her ancestors, 
the Desmonds. Marguerite was not comely in 
her early girlhood, though her sister Ellen and 
her brother Robert were handsome children. 
As a child, she was sensitive and sentimental, 
and her delight was to browse in a library, — 
and it was this taste that equipped her for her 
later friendships. Her power of imagination was 
uncommonly strong, and she became the enter- 
tainer of her children-companions with stories of 
her own imagining, as well as by her recitals 
of legends and romance learned in the library. 
Her father removed to Clonmel, and became 
editor of a paper there. He was not prosperous, 
and was a man of perverse temper, which grew 
with adversity. Marguerite and her sister were 
fancied by some wealthy maiden-lady relatives, 
and were taken by them to a home of comfort. 
On their return to Clonmel, — beautiful, and with 
the distinction of knowledge and a clever use of 
it, — they were a contrast to the ordinary Irish 
country girl, whose whole equipment of dress and 



LADY BLESSINGTON. 53 

accomplishments was " two washing gowns and a 
tune on the piano." The girls took part in all 
the gayeties of the town, and, besides the charm 
of their conversation, were graceful dancers ; and 
thoueh Marguerite was less beautiful, she was 
most tasteful in dress, and this became always a 
noted characteristic of hers. They became the 
attraction of an English regiment recently sta- 
tioned in the town, and Marguerite was soon 
married, through the insistence of her father, to 
a Captain Farmer, when less than fifteen years 
of age. This was the great misfortune of her 
life. 

Her husband was subject to fits of insanit3^ 
and her whole feeling towards him was that of 
aversion. Cruelty and caprice were the chief 
components of his character. From his tyranny 
she fled, — first to her father's house, but was de- 
nied solace there, so sought it elsewhere. She 
led a somewhat vagabond existence for about 
nine years, living first with one friend, then 
with another; thankful for any home, and ac- 
commodating herself to any companions. Of 
this period of her life not much is recorded, 



^4 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

save her beauty, for it was shortly after this that 
her peerless portrait was painted, ere her sorrow 
and suffering had time to efface the vivacity of 
youth, but only to give depth to the eyes and 
interest to the face. She lived in London with 
her brother Robert until in 1817, when her hus- 
band's death occurred by his falling out of a 
window when in a state of drunken frenzy. 
Four months after this she became the second 
wife of an Irish nobleman of a dashing person 
and little brains, Charles John Gardiner, second 
Earl of Blessington, when she was twenty-eight 
and he was thirty-five years of age. With this 
marriage came a reversal of her misfortunes. 
Her generosity, sympathy, and good heart soon 
prompted the improvement of the conditions of 
her own family, and in this gave emphatic evi- 
dence of that devotedness to duty and friends 
which became her strongest trait. Her youngest 
sister, Marianne, was adopted and educated by 
her, and became her travelling companion, and 
long afterwards her modest biographer. Her 
sister Ellen married first, Mr. Home Purves, and 
afterwards, Viscount Canterbury, speaker of the 
House of Commons. 



LADY BLESSINGTON. 



55 



Lord Blessington's income was great, but his 
tastes were extravagant as were also his wife's, 
and luxurious was their home in St. James's 
Square, and magnificent the manner in which 
they entertained the brilliant society gathered 
there; and for three years their brilliant com- 
panies of beauty and intellect outshone the 
congregations at Holland House. In 1822, 
Count D'Orsay, a polished and accomplished 
young Frenchman, visited London, and was 
made most welcome by the Blessingtons. In 
August of that year they started for a leisurely 
tour of the Continent. The Countess kept a 
diary during this journeying, which was pub- 
lished in 1839, under the title of "The Idler 
in Italy," revealing a keen observation and a 
capacity for entertaining comment. 

Her ladyship was ever ambitious of literary 
eminence. Possessed of great beauty, and 
after a time high station and wealth, she yet 
yearned for the recognition by great writers of 
her position as one of them. She had published, 
previous to her continental trip, two volumes, 
— one called " The Magic Lantern," the other, 



56 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

"Sketches and Fragments," both being accounts 
of and comments upon London society ; both 
were unsuccessful. Her one book which will 
remain in literature was consequent upon her 
meeting with Lord Byron in Genoa, in 1823, 
and is a record of her conversations with the 
poet. She who aspired to make her mark in 
literature has made it, but as the chronicler of 
the sentiments, vanities, whims, and oddities of 
another. But it was no ordinary ability that 
was competent to persuade the great poet, 
usually unapproachable, to avow, in picturesque 
language, his opinions on men, women, and 
manners, — to provide for later times the data 
from which to gauge his strange personality. 

She has written much of herself into her 
records; and calumny urged, at the time of 
publication, that she insinuated in her writings 
a far greater degree of friendship on the poet's 
part than really existed. Yet, in refutation of 
this is Byron's letter to Moore : — 

" I have just seen some friends of yours, who 
paid me a visit yesterday, which, in honor of 
them and of yours, I returned to-day, as I reserve 



LADY BLESSINGTON. 57 

my bear-skin and teeth and paws and claws for 
our enemies. 

" Your allies, whom I found very agreeable 
personages, are Milor Blessington and epouse, 
travelling with a very handsome companion, in 
the shape of a ' French count ' (to use Farquhar's 
phrase in the ' Beau's Stratagem '), who has all 
the air of a cupidor dechaine. Milady seems 
highly literary ; to which, and your honor's 
acquaintance with the family, I attribute the 
pleasure of having seen them. She is also very 
pretty, even in a morning ; a species of beauty 
on which the sun of Italy does not shine so fre- 
quently as the chandelier." 

The Countess Guiccioli was amonor those who 
depreciated the Blessingtons' accounts of the 
conversations; but then, perchance, there may 
have been some jealousy of the attractive Eng- 
lish woman's influence over the poet. The 
Blessingtons left Genoa in June of 1823, and 
continued their journeyings throughout Italy 
until 1828. In the preceding year. Count 
D'Orsay had become the husband of the Earl 
of Blessington's daughter, Lady Harriet Frances 



58 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Gardiner, when she was but Httle over fifteen 
years of age; but they lived together but three 
years. In 1829, the Earl died in Paris; and the 
Countess continued there until after the Revolu- 
tion of 1830, when she returned to England. 
Her journal of the trip from Naples to Paris, 
and her stay in that city, was published in 1841, 
under the title of " The Idler in France." In 
England she took a house in Seamore Place, 
Mayfair, and later removed to Gore House, 
Kensington, with which place is associated the 
traditions of her elegant entertainings and her 
intercourse with many men of eminence, but 
also with a course of living which compromised 
her reputation in society. Her son-in-law, the 
Count, continued to form one of her household, 
though separated from his wife, the Lady Harriet. 
Though not received in general society, the 
Countess surrounded herself with celebrities of 
all nations ; and it was at her house that Louis 
Napoleon was a cherished guest in his years of 
exile, and from whence he proceeded to head the 
government of France. Here Bulwer came as 
perhaps her most intimate friend ; here Thack- 



LADY BLESSINGTON. 



59 



eray was made most welcome, and Lord John 
Russell and Lord Palmerston, Canning and 
Castlereagh were frequent guests. Dickens, — 
then a dandy like unto D'Orsay, who seemed 
to be his model, — "Rejected Addresses" Smith, 
the banker-poet Rogers, Kemble, Wilkie, and Dr. 
Parr engaged in sparkling converse with their 
hostess, who sat in a deep arm-chair while Tom 
Moore was privileged to perch himself on a foot- 
stool at her feet ; and by all these men she was 
held in unqualified respect. Her income be- 
came impaired and unequal to the expense of 
entertaining. She resorted to literature to add 
to her resources. She was engaged by Heath, 
the engraver, to edit a certain class of annuals 
popular in those days. For some years her 
income from "The Keepsake" and " The Book 
of Beauty " exceeded one thousand pounds a 
year. Her novels, too, were a source of some 
profit. For "Strathern" she received about three 
thousand dollars. These romances were weak 
in character and plot, but were fair pictures 
of society portrayed with much piquancy. In 



6o SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

one, " Grace Cassidy," she describes interestingly 
scenes of her youth in Ireland. But interest in 
her work waned, and as she seems not to have 
thought of retrenchment of her expenditure, 
disaster rapidly descended. In 1849, she had 
perforce to sell out, and then moved to Paris, 
where she died in the same year. She was 
buried at Chambourcy, near St. Germain-en- 
Laye, the residence of the Due and Duchesse 
de Grammont, the sister and brother-in-law of 
Count D'Orsay. 

She was a woman of great tact, of a sweet 
delicacy of manner, and of a chivalrous devoted- 
ness to friendship. Her friends were carefully 
chosen, and never deserted. Perhaps no woman 
of the century has had so many men of mark 
as her friends and admirers. She had charity 
towards others' failings. She gave pleasure 
where she could. She was eleQ^ant and dio:ni- 
fied in her bearing, though possessed of Irish 
wit withal. She was very beautiful. 

Lord Byron was induced to sing the praise 
of her picture here given : — 



LADY BLESSINGTON. 6l 

"Were I now as I was, I had sung 
What Lawrence lias painted so well ; 
But the strain would expire on my tongue, 
And the theme is too soft for my shell. 

" I am ashes where once I was fire, 
And the bard in my bosom is dead : 
What I loved I now merely admire, 
And my heart is as gray as my head. 

" Let the young and the brilliant aspire 
To sing what I gaze on in vain, 
For sorrow has torn from my lyre 
The string which was worthy the strain." 



MARY 
I5AC)ELLA 

DUCnE5-5 
or RUTLAND 

ELV/iOLD5. 




RowLANDSON, the caricaturist, 
once published a cartoon entitled 
"Juno Devon, All Sublime." The 
rival goddesses in competition with 
her before that modern Paris, the 
Prince of Wales, being their Graces 
of Gordon and Rutland. Beyond 
the various written records of the 
opposing beauty of those aristo- 
cratic dames who dominated society 
in their day, we have ample painted 
evidence of their loveliness. Of 
her Grace of Devonshire, we have, 
first, the engraved renderings of 
t "the lost Gainsborough." There 
are other Gainsboroughs, too, — Georgi- 
ana as a child, and a full-leno-th of her 
standing at the edge of a lawn, her 
face looking down, wearing a white dress, her 
right elbow on the base of a column, a scarf 

5 



66 ' SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

in both hands, her hair piled high, but without 
the hat, as in the more famous picture. There 
are then several by Sir Joshua. The first, where 
she stands as a child beside her mother; then, 
she as a another with her own child, — a very 
charming profile, and a picture that insinuates 
the vivacity of demeanor and the abandon so 
characteristic of her. 

Walpole wrote of this as " Little like and not 
good." Yet, as to goodness, a modern authority 
has said : " It is a superb work ; and, in motive, 
color, and composition, it ranks as a triumph 
alike of nature and art." Again, there is a 
whole-lensjth showinc^ her about to descend some 
steps to a lawn, her superb shoulders and neck 
bare, and her hair highly bedecked with feathers. 
Walpole writes of another portrait, drawn by 
Lady Di Beauclerck, and engraved by Bartolozzi : 
" A Castilian nymph conceived by Sappho and 
executed by Myron, would not have had more 
grace and simplicity. The likeness is perfectly 
preserved, except that the pain tress has lent her 
own expression to the Duchess, which you will 
allow is very agreeable flattering." In the Royal 



DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. 67 

collection of miniatures at Windsor, are three 
charmingly executed ivories of her by Cosway. 
Lawrence, too, made a chalk drawing of her, 
which now hangs at Chiswick House, in the 
room in which Charles Fox died. This is an 
interesting work from being a very early effort 
of the after-time President of the Academy, and 
showing that then he had not attained the trick 
of flattering his sitters, even when they were 
noted beauties. Angelica Kauffman painted 
her, and John Downman also made a portrait 
replete with elegance and picturesqueness. In 
fact, the comely Duchess pervaded the art of 
the period. Of her Grace of Gordon, we have, 
as our ideal presentment of her, the portrait by 
Sir Joshua. In it her hair is done up high, and 
two rows of pearls are intertwined therein. The 
dress is of the Charles the First period, and 
shows the sweetly modulated shoulders leading 
up to — 

" The pillared throat, clear chiselled cheek, 
High arching brows, nose purely Greek, 
Set lips, — too firm for a coquette." 

We have also an interesting portrait of her by 
Romney. 



68 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Of her Grace of Rutland, we have also several 
pictures by Sir Joshua. There is a whole-length 
with a decorative head-dress, and a landscape 
background. The original of this was destroyed 
by fire at Belvoir Castle. Another, a half-length, 
in the same costume, and a three-quarter face, is 
mostly pervaded by a serene sense of pride. 
There is a drawing of her done by the Hon. 
Mrs. O'Neil, which is interesting from the pic- 
turesque head-dress shown. Her Grace of Gor- 
don was as great a power in the political world as 
she of Devonshire, — probably greater, for her alli- 
ance, and principles were with the ruling power. 
This lady was to Pitt's party what Fair Devon 
was to Fox's. In fact, it was asserted she 
endeavored to marry her daughter, Lady Char- 
lotte, afterwards Duchess of Richmond, to the 
premier. When Georgiana made her famous 
canvass in favor of Fox, the Tories opposed to 
her the Scotch Duchess. 

She lived and entertained then in a splendid 
mansion in Pall Mall; and there assembled the 
adherents of the Administration. 

Jane was the daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 



DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. 69 

of Monreith, and in her youth, even, was noted 
for beauty. A ballad, ''Jenny of Monreith," 
written in her honor, was often chivalrously sung 
by her son George, the last Duke of Gordon. 
"Jenny" married the fourth Duke, Alexander, 
in 1767. The career of the Duke's youngest 
brother George, identified with the " Gordon 
Riot," caused the family much embarrassment, 
and even threatened to derogate from the 
Duchess's dominance with the ruling party. 

Her Grace was of somewhat stronger fibre 
than she of Devon ; more masculinity, ay, even 
more principle, characterized her. Thrift was a 
visible virtue, in contrast to Georgiana's improvi- 
dence. Command, rather than cajolery, was her 
political method. Her later life was devoted to 
securing sons-in-law ; three dukes, a marquis, and 
a knight were of her garnering. She was on 
good terms with the Regent, and endeavored 
to aid him in his differences with his Princess 
Caroline. She is remembered, too, as a patron 
and friend of Dr. Beattie, the poet, who has 
eulogized her in these lines "To a Pen": — 



70 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

" Go, and be guided by the brightest eyes, 
And to the softest hand thine aid impart ; 
To trace the fair ideas as they arise, 
Warm from the purest, gentlest, noblest heart." 

The third in that group of goddesses was 
surely the fairest of them all, of more perfect 
form, more noble bearing, having that ultimate 
element of the greatest beauty, — distinction. 
She came of a longer lineage, and was the con- 
summate flower of beauty wrought by the sun 
and summers through many generations of patri- 
cian life, — life amid the palatial parks, the superb 
scenery, and majestic castles of England. Such 
living weaves its sweetest elements into the tis- 
sues of the being and works a spell of loveliness 
such as Lady Mary Somerset. She was the 
youngest daughter of Charles, fourth Duke of 
Beaufort, a descendant of the Plantagenets. In 
1775, she was married to Lord Charles Manners, 
eldest son (born in 1754) of John, — that Marquis 
of Granby whom Junius attacked, — who was 
associated in the government, in George the 
Second's time, with the Earl of Chatham. The 
Marquis was a man of much force, and a most 



DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. 7 1 

hospitable entertainer. He died before his 
father, the third Duke of Rutland. 

Lord Charles succeeded to the dukedom in 
1779. He had formed a friendship at Cambridge 
with Pitt, the son of his father's colleague, and 
through his influence Pitt entered Parliament. 
In 1 784, he was induced by the young premier 
to accept the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, and 
it is with the lavish entertainment and high 
revelries at Dublin Castle that his name and 
that of his beautiful Duchess is connected. 

High living soon told its tale, for the Duke 
died in 1787, at the early age of thirty-three, 
Thous^h havino; the most beautiful wife in Eno:- 
land, his affections wandered, and tales are told 
of his attachment to that siren sinorer, Mrs. 
Billington. The Duchess's manner had some- 
what of levity and much coquetry in it, though 
she could not be classed with that company who 
have not time to be virtuous. At the time of 
her lord's death, she was living with her mother, 
the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, in Berkeley 
Square, London, having been partially estranged 
from her husband. On hearing of his illness, she 



72 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

started to set out for Dublin ; but a message of 
his death came fast upon the trail of the first 
news. Perchance it was this estrangement at 
death, this having parted in anger without the 
chance of reconciliation in life, that affected her 
so deeply that, though sought by many suitors, 
the widow was true to the memory of her late 
lord. Her son, John Henry, succeeded to the 
title; and his bride, a daughter of the Earl of 
Carlisle, was also known as a beauty, and her 
portrait was painted by Hoppner, in 1798. It 
was she of whom Greville wrote in his Memoirs, 
and commented on her lack of taste in spoiling 
the magnificent Castle of Belvoir, the pride and 
glory of the Eastern Midlands. 

The beauty of the Duchess Mar}^ Isabella was 
statuesque, classical ; her features were noble. 
She received admiration as her right, but gave 
not lareesse of smiles and wit In return. She 
was not as the Devonian divinity, " The woman 
in whose golden smile all life seems enchanted." 

Wraxall writes of a lady telling of witnessing 
a prenuptial display of her person, and being 
entranced by lithe limb, by the fine and faultless 



DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. 73 

form. Reynolds has hinted at the beauteous 
body, and the hint ensnares us. Verily, "the 
visible fair form of a woman is hereditary queen of 
us." Wraxall also likens the Duchess to an older- 
time beauty, Diane de Poitiers, — that famous 
lady of France, the favorite of Frangois I. and 
Henri II. Of that lady's beauty, it was written, 
that it was of the form and feature rather than 
the radiance of the mind and manner trans- 
forming them ; and like her, too, our Duchess 
retained her beauty to an advanced age. She 
died in 1821. To the last, she impressed one 
with her dignity, her nobility, her loveliness. 

" And they who saw her snow-white hair, 
And dark, sad eyes, so deep with feehng. 
Breathed all at once the chancel air, 
And seemed to hear the organ pealing." 




G> 



•Hiy^^* 



f. 






In March, 1781, Walpole writes to a friend: 
" As your lordship has honored all the produc- 
tions of my press with your acceptance, I venture 
to inclose the last, which I printed to oblige the 
Lucans. There are many beautiful and poetic 
expressions in it. A wedding, to be sure, is 
neither a new nor a promising ..ubject, nor will 
outlast the favors; still, I think Mr. Jones's ode 
is uncommonly good for the occasion." The 
ode was " The Muse Recalled," and the occa- 
sion the nuptials of Lord Viscount Althorp 
and Miss Lavinia Bingham, eldest daughter of 
Sir Charles Bingham, created, in 1776, Baron 
Lucan of Castlebar. Sir Charles was a man of 
culture, who was intimate with Johnson, Gold- 
smith, Gibbon, Reynolds, and Burke. He is 
frequently pleasantly mentioned by Boswell. He 



yS SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

had married, in 1760, Margaret, daughter of 
James Smith, M.P., a lady of great good sense 
and rare accomplishments, and three lovely- 
daughters were the issue from this union. Rey- 
nolds found in them most pleasing subjects for 
his pencil. Their pictures appeared at the 
Academy, in 1786. Lavinia was portrayed as 
shown in the picture here given, and again in 
quite as lovely a fashion, — standing out doors 
and wearing a wide-brimmed hat which casts a 
broad shade across the face ; the wavy curls of 
hair fall upon the shoulder; in the background 
is a landscape. The naivete of the face is 
exquisitely delightful. The old-time flavor of 
the whole causes one to recall Locker's lines 
on the picture of his grandmother: — 

" Beneath a summer tree, 
Her maiden reverie 

Has a charm ; 
Her ringlets are in taste ; 
What an arm ! . . . what a waist 

For an arm ! " 

In the picture of her youngest sister, Anne, 
is a broad hat, too ; she sits full-face, but in her 



COUNTESS SPENCER. 79 

features there is lacking just a little of the quiet 
dignity of the eldest. All of these portraits have 
been made familiar to us by the most merito- 
rious mezzotints of them by Cousins. In 
Lavinia's face there lingers all the enchanting 
grace of girlhood, — a face yet full of that early 
beauty — 

"Which, Hke the morning's glow 
Hints a full day below." 

A later president of the Academy, Sir Martin 
Shee, has shown us that face in the noonday of 
its matronly beauty, and the gentle character and 
sweet sensibility yet outshine through the mask 
of the flesh as in the earlier pictures. 

Lady Bingham was careful of the education 
and company of her daughters. The girls were 
musical, and Lavinia excelled in painting as well. 
Walpole writes of her being in Italy, in 1785, 
with Mrs. Damer, his sculptor friend, and of her 
drawing with very great expression. He was 
not so complimentary of her music some years 
before, when he tells of being invited to Lady 
Lucan's to hear her daughters sing Jomelli's 



8o SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

" Miserere," set for two voices : " It lasted for 
two hours, and instead of being pathetic was 
eminently dull, until at last I rejoiced when ' the 
two women had left the sepulchre' " 

Shortly after this he tells of rumors of 
the attachment of George John, Lord Althorp, 
brother of Georgiana of Devonshire, to " that 
sweet creature " Lavinia. At dinner at Lord 
Lucan's, Lord Althorp sat at a side table with 
the girls and a Miss Shipley. " Pray, Lady 
Spencer," said Walpole, " is it owned that Lord 
Althorp is to marry — Miss Shipley ? " His next 
reference to the Lucans is in regard to the 
wedding ode printed on the Strawberry Hill 
press. The poet therein invokes blessings in 
this wise : — 

" Shine forth, ye silver eyes of night, 
And gaze on virtues crowned with treasures of delight. 

Flow smoothly, circling hours, — 

And o'er their heads unblended pleasure pour ; 

Nor let your fleeting round 

Their mortal transports bound, 

But fill their cup of bliss, eternal powers, 

Till time himself shall cease, and suns shall blaze no more." 



COUNTESS SPENCER. 8 1 

He essays to eulogize the bride : — 

" Each morn reclined on many a rose, 
Lavinia's jDencil shall disclose 
New forms of dignity and grace, 
The expressive air, the impassioned face, 
The curled smile, the bubbling tear, 
The bloom of hope, the snow of fear, 
To some poetic tale fresh beauty give, 
And bid the starting tablet rise and live ; 
Or with swift fingers shall she touch the strings, 
Notes of such wondrous texture weave 
As lifts the soul on seraph wings." 

He then proceeds to encourage Althorp to 
lead a strong, noble life, devoting his great abili- 
ties to the state, though he laments the small 
chances for genuine sterling worth to achieve 
eminence 

" In this voluptuous, this abandoned age," 
when the leaders of the country are 

" Slaves of vice and slaves of gold." 

There was much fitness in this poet essaying 
a homily for the groom's benefit, for he had 
been the young man's tutor some years before. 
When the first Earl — a man of most fascinating 

6 



82 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

manners — placed his son in the tutor's charge, 
he said, " Make him, if you can, like yourself 
and I shall be satisfied." Johnson said of Sir 
William Jones, " The most enlightened of the 
sons of men." He became a great Indian and 
Persian scholar, and was ever an honored friend 
of his former pupil. 

Previous to his marriage. Lord Althorp had 
entered Parliament, and, as a Whig, was oppos- 
ing Lord North. When the Marquess of Rock- 
ingham came to power, he was made a Lord 
Commissioner of the Treasury. In 1783, he 
succeeded to his father's earldom. The Dowager 
Countess lived on until 18 14. Her character 
has been variously described. Mrs. Delany calls 
her "an agreeable person, with a sensible, gen- 
erous, and delicate mind." She was termed 
vain. What woman would not be who was 
mother to such beauties as Devonshire, Dun- 
cannon, and Lavinia. In an autobiography by 
the third Earl, he naively remarks that his 
mother never liked his grandmother. The 
pleasing picture of " Ruth and Naomi " is the 
exception in families. 



COUNTESS SPENCER. 83 

On the breaking out of the French Revolu- 
tion, Earl Spencer gave his support to Pitt, by 
whom he was appointed first lord of the admir- 
alty, in 1 794. It was during the period of her 
husband's brilliant career in this office that the 
Countess made her greatest success as a hostess 
in ministerial society. She was a good conver- 
sationalist, and especially attractive to men of 
individuality who admired her sagacious, pictur- 
esque pungency of expression. The great naval 
commanders, who frequented the admiralty, were 
impressed with the frankness and force of her 
superior mind, Nelson and Collingwood partic- 
ularly. She is frequently mentioned in their 
letters as being sure to have much sympathy in 
their work. A late biographer of the Earl wrote : 
" She had the penetration to appreciate Nelson 
through the cloud of personal vanity and silly 
conceit which caused him to be lightly esteemed 
in London society." Her " bull-dog " she used 
playfully to call him. She visited Gibbon at 
Lausanne, in 1795, and he writes: "She is a 
charming woman who, with sense and spirit, has 
the playfulness and simplicity of a child." By 



84 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

some she was accounted haughty and exclusive. 
Perchance she was to those who were without 
the breedinor or the brains to commend them to 
her. Dignified she certainly was, and her influ- 
ence was wholly for good in the uplifting of 
politics and the purifying of society. " I would 
not advise any one to utter a word against any 
one she was attached to," once said her father. 
She became the wise coadjutor of her husband 
in forming the magnificent Althorp Library. 

When the earl retired from the admiralty, in 
1800, his entertaining became less general. His 
hospitalities at Spencer House were restricted to 
his more intimate friends. Here came Lord Gren- 
ville, Earl Grey, chief of the Whigs, Brougham, 
Horner, and Lord John Russell ; the younger 
men to hold converse with her who had known 
Burke, Pitt, Fox, and all the older time orators 
and statesmen. 

In a series of boyish letters sent by the heir 
to the earldom to his father the ending of all is in 
this quaint phrase : " My duty to Mama." The 
youth did his duty by his mother. She directed 
his tastes and studies, and when he was at col- 



COUNTESS SPENCER. 85 

lege incited him to try for high honors, and 
urged, again and yet again, application to study ; 
and through her persuasion he became a reading 
man. He entered Parliament when of age, in 
1803. During the Fox and Grenville adminis- 
tration he held office as a lord of the treasury. 
When his mother was congratulated on his 
appointment, she said : " Jack was always skilful 
in figures, and his work is so much to his taste 
that I am sure he will do himself credit." He 
did himself great credit. His career was con- 
sistently courageous, honorable, and beneficent. 
He had character! This is his mother's best 
eulogy. She died in 183 1, shortly after her son 
had become Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 
which office he earned his greatest repute as a 



statesman. 



• Elizabeth: 

DUCHE55 
op HAMILTOAJ 



READ 




The story of the Gunnings is as romantic as 
any ever wrought into imaginative narrative or 
incorporated in epic poem. The notorious dam- 
sels were daughters of John Gunning of Castle 
Coote, County Roscommon, Ireland, by the Hon. 
Bridget Bourke, daughter of Theobald, sixth 
Viscou;it Bourke of Mayo, w^hom he married 
in 1 731. The family was wofuUy impecunious; 
so when the daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, 
grew into marvellously comely maidens, their 
mother urged their going on the stage to aug- 
ment the faulty fortune. They went to Dublin, 
and there were kindly received by Peg Woffing- 
ton, then in her glory as Sir Harry Wildair, 
and by Tom Sheridan, manager of Dublin 
Theatre. The stage had not then become the 
stepping-stone to the ranks of the nobility, so 
the girls were advised to adventure socially, with 



90 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

their faces for their fortunes. They had not the 
dresses to be presented in at DubHn Castle, but 
Sheridan suppHed these from the resources of 
the green-room wardrobe. Attired as Lady 
Macbeth and as Jtcliet they made their curt- 
sies to the Earl of Harrington, the then Lord- 
Lieutenant. 

The hostess of the evening was the handsome 
Lady CaroHne Petersham, bride of the Earl's 
eldest son. Lady Caroline had been one of the 
" Beauty Fitzroys," and had been a favorite 
belle in town before her marriage. 

" When Fitzroy moves, resplendent, fair. 
So warm her bloom, sublime her air, 
Her ebon tresses formed to grace 
And heighten while they shade her face." 

Walpole wrote of her in his poem on " The 
Beauties." The raw Connauoht Qfirls outshone 
this dazzlino^ hostess. 

Their " first night " was an auspicious suc- 
cess. The debut was applauded, and the players 
praised. They were adjudged fitted to star 
the social capital, so to London they went, in 



DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. 9I 

June, 1 75 1. Their reception was magical. The 
West End went almost mad over them. When 
they appeared at Court, the aristocracy present 
was indecorous in its efforts to view the domi- 
nant beauties. Lords and ladies clambered on 
any eminence to gaze. The crowd surged upon 
them, and it was with difficulty they entered 
their chairs because of the mob outside. The 
gayety of Vauxhall Gardens was incomplete 
without them. 

Their campaign was a short and eminently 
active one; Elizabeth triumphed first. At a 
masquerade at Lord Chesterfield's, in February, 
1752, James, the sixth Duke of Hamilton and 
Brandon, who was enamoured of the younger 
Irish girl, wished to marry her at once. A 
clergyman was asked to perform the ceremony 
then and there. He objected to the time and 
place and the absence of a ring. The Duke 
threatened to send for the Archbishop. With 
the ring of a bed-curtain, at half an hour past 
midnight, the wedding took place in Mayfair 
Chapel. The Scotch were enraged at the alli- 
ance, which became an unhappy one. The 



92 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Duke was vulgar, debauched, extravagant, and 
" damaged in person and fortune," yet, withal, 
insolently proud. He betook himself off wdthin 
six years, and his two sons by the Duchess 
became, successively, seventh and eighth Dukes 
of Hamilton ; and a daughter married Edward, 
twelfth Earl of Derby. 

The dowager was less than a year in widow's 
weeds when she exchanged them for more straw- 
berry leaves. She had two ducal offers, from 
their graces of Bridgewater and of Argyll; she 
accepted the latter. In March, 1759, she married 
John, the fifth Duke of that name. Walpole's 
comment on this was: "Who could have believed 
a Gunnino- would unite the two a^reat houses of 
Campbell and Hamilton ? For my part I expect 
to see Lady Coventry Queen of Prussia. I 
would not venture to marry either of them these 
thirty years, for fear of being shuffled out of the 
world prematurely, to make room for the rest of 
their adventurers. The first time Jack Campbell 
carries the Duchess into the Highlands, I am 
persuaded that some of his second-sighted sub- 
jects will see him in a winding-sheet with a 



DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. 93 

train of kings behind him as long as those in 
Macbeth." And again : " A match that would 
not disgrace Arcadia ... as she is not quite so 
charming as her sister, I do not know whether 
it is not better than to retain a title which puts 
one in mind of her beauty." 

The Dukes of Argyll — Lords of the Isles — 
have always shown a partiality for beauties as 
brides. This Duke's father married the beau- 
tiful Mary Bellenden, daughter of John, Lord 
Bellenden, — 

"Smiling Mary, soft and fair as down." 

She is mentioned otherwise as by Gay : — 

" Bellenden we needs must praise, 
Who, as down the stairs she jumps, 
Sings ' Over the hills and far away,' 
Despising doleful dumps." 

Walpole says she was never mentioned by 
her contemporaries but as the most perfect crea- 
ture they had ever known. The present Duke 
wedded that charming child, Lady Elizabeth 
Leveson Gower, who sits on her mother's knee 
in that surpassingly fine picture by Lawrence, 



94 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

called " Lady Govver and Child/' And his son 
is allied to the Princess Louise, the most comely 
of Victoria's daughters. 

After her sister's death, in 1760, her Grace 
of Argyll suffered a decline in health. She was 
ordered abroad for change. She was appointed 
to accompany the Princess Sophia Charlotte on 
her journey to England to be married to the 
King. As they neared the ceremony in Lon- 
don, the Princess became nervous. Her Grace 
essayed to quiet her fears. " Ah, my dear Duch- 
ess, you may laugh at me, but you have been 
married twice," said the Princess. The Duch- 
ess became one of the ladies of the bedchamber, 
and was in much favor with the Queen. 

In 1767, her father died at Somerset House, 
and her mother, the Hon. Mrs. Gunning, in 
1770. There were three sisters in the family 
besides our heroines : Sophia Gunning died, an 
infant, in 1737; Lissy, who died in 1752, aged 
eight years; and Catherine, who was married, in 
1769, to Robert Travis an Irish squire in her 
own rank of life. She died, too, at Somerset 
House, in 1773, where she was an upper house- 



DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. 95 

keeper. A brother entered the army, fought at 
Bunker Hill, and became a major-general in 
1787. He was much of a ladies' man. He 
married a Miss Miniie, author of some novels, 
and they had a daughter who aspired to repeat 
the successes of her famous aunts. She man- 
ao-ed to marry the Hon. Stephen Digby, who had 
lost his first wife, a daughter of Lord Ilchester, 
in 1787. The Duchess of Argyll was created, 
in 1776, a peeress of England as Baroness 
Hamilton of Hambledon County, Leicester, and 
died in December, 1790. By her second mar- 
riage she had two sons, successively Dukes of 
Argyll, and two daughters, one of whom. Lady 
Charlotte Campbell, attained some fame as a 
novelist as Lady Charlotte Bury, she having 
married Colonel John Campbell and secondly 
Rev. Edward Bury. 

We have no evidence of the possession of 
bright Irish wit by the double-duchessed beauty. 
Ingenuous enthusiasm, perfect simplicity, and 
unfailins: Sfood humor ever marked her manner, 
and were a captivating adjunct to her great 
facial charm. Walpole writes of a pretty sight 



96 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

when their Graces of Hamilton and of Richmond 
with Lady Ailesbury sitting in a boat together, 
and proceeds to tell of the suspected jealousy by 
she of Hamilton of the beauty of his niece,, 
daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, who became 
the bride of Earl Waldegrave, and later married 
the Duke of Gloucester, the King's youngest 
brother. At another time, when a lady wrote 
telling him of the advent of a beauty who was- 
expected to outvie the Gunnings, he replies: 
" There was to have been a handsomer every 
summer these seven years, but when the seasons 
come they all seem to have been addled by the 
winter." 

One day the housekeeper of Hampton Court 
was showing the palace to visitors when the 
sisters were there. She threw open the door 
where they were sitting, saying, " This is our 
beauty-room." The pictures and galleries were 
forgotten by the crowd, which gazed on the beau- 
ties instead. 

For a decade their beauty was regnant in 
London. They were not politicians as were 
their Graces of Gordon and Devonshire, nor 



DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. 97 

had they the ability to become such. Neither 
were they the associates of brilHant, intellectual 
men, but participants in the gay, vacuous, 
showy society of the rapid set of the aristocracy. 
The elder sister gained the coronet of Coventry, 
but her vanity caused her own undoing ; the 
younger was a part of the exhibition of " Beauty 
and the Beast." A high price was paid for her 
position by the endurance of a period of tyranny 
and terror. 

Some praise must be accorded the beauties, 
for at a time of much licentiousness of a profli- 
gate society and tolerated coarsenesses, the sisters 
determinedly kept their names free from ignoble 
soil and scandal. 



NARIA 
'COUNTE53 

prcpvmTRy 



,nAMILTO/Vj.^^ 

A- 



,•* 




" Two Irish girls of no fortune, who make 
more noise than any of their predecessors since 
the days of Helen, and who are declared the 
handsomest women alive." So wrote Walpole, 
in June, 1751- If we were to judge of their 
beauty by the pictured presentments of it, we 
would certainly agree with " our Horace " when 
he says he has seen much handsomer women 
than either. We have no adequate image of 
their surpassing loveliness, the beholding of 
which would cause us to feel how merited was 
their meed of praise, how fair the contemporary 
comment on their comeliness, and how just 
the wide fame of a beauty which tradition has 
epitomized for us in the phrase, " The Fair 
Gunnings." Though the print publishers of 
the time actively issued portraits, we feel that 
none of them picture such a person as would 



I02 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

set society and the whole city of London astir 
by her blazing beauty. 

The best-known likenesses are the various 
pictures by Francis Cotes, one of the founders 
of the Royal Academy, a painter of considerable 
merit, who was born about 1725, and died in 
1770. It is said that Hogarth preferred him 
as a portrait painter to Reynolds. His studio 
was in Cavendish Square, and at his death was 
taken by Romney; and it was while he worked 
there that Sir Joshua referred to his rival as 
" the man in Cavendish Square." The studio 
was later occupied by Sir Martin Shee. 

Cotes's picture of Maria is a half length of a 
modestly dignified lady, having no tendency at 
all to that silliness that Walpole insinuates was 
characteristic of her. The face is oval, the eye- 
brows well apart and distinctly arched, and the 
hair brushed back from the forehead and falling 
on the very graceful neck. The dress is cut 
low, showing a delicately-moulded bosom. This 
picture was mezzo-tinted by McArdell ; and 
there is another, somewhat similar, reproduced 
superbly by Spooner. His principal picture of 



COUNTESS OF COVENTRY. 103 

Elizabeth is not so attractive as the picture of 
her sister; the body is too constrained and sym- 
metrically formal ; the dress is very low and 
edged with lace, some flowers resting on her 
bosom. The neck and breast have not the suave 
grace of the sister's. This has been engraved 
in mezzo-tint by Houston. Another portrait by 
Cotes shows her with fur on the dress. He 
also painted a portrait of Kitty in a low dress 
sprigged with fiowers, with a sash, and ribbons 
at the back of the head. This has a wooded 
landscape background. Below the print of this 
picture is engraved these lines: — 

" This youngest of the Graces here we view 
So Hke in Beauty to the other two 
Whoe'er compares their Features and their Frame 
Will know at once that Gunning is her name." 

There is an engraved picture of the two sisters 
together — based on Cotes's portrayals — called 
" The Hibernian Sisters." Maria is sitting on 
the left, looking toward the right, with a dog 
on her lap ; the younger is on the right, looking 
to the front, and holds a fan in her hand. In 



I04 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

the background is a garden wall. Cupids sur- 
mount the picture. The inscription is in this 
fashion : — 

" Hibernia long with spleen beheld 
Her Favorite Toasts by ours excelled. 
Resolved to outvie Britannia's Fair 
By her own Beauties, — sent a pair." 

Reynolds painted them both, in 1753; but he 
failed to give them the charm we would expect. 
Unless Sir Joshua's engravers belie him, he did 
not make Maria even ordinarily fair to look 
upon. These pictures are not classed among 
his masterpieces. There is a picture of Maria 
by B. Wilson the engraver, made before she 
left Ireland. In it the features are handsome 
and the figure graceful, though over-dressed, and 
the whole impression is of a matron in her 
thirties rather than a maid in her teens. The 
picture we give of her is from a whole-length 
by Gavin Hamilton, a Scotch artist, a friend of 
Burns, born in Lanark about 1730. He must 
have been a precocious genius, for this pic- 
ture was engraved by McArdell, and published 
in 1754. 



COUNTESS OF COVENTRY. 



105 



Hamilton passed the greater part of his life 
in Rome, painting classical subjects and pursuing 
archaeological investigations. He died there, in 
1797. Portraiture was probably a pecuniary 
pursuit before the classics claimed him. His 
portraits savor somewhat of the affectations of 
the "curtain and column" school. His canvas 
of Elizabeth shows her standing on a terrace 
with a low dress and long hair, a veil loosely 
tied across her chest. Her left hand rests on 
the head of a greyhound. There is a seat to 
the left and trees in the background. 

Houston engraved a portrait of Maria after a 
drawing by J. St. Liotard. This is a three- 
quarter length figure. Her hair is in large plaits 
twined with a muslin veil on her head. The 
dress is open at the throat, showing a necklace. 
There is a wide belt with large clasps. Her 
left elbow rests on her knee. Perhaps the most 
satisfactory pictures of the Beauties are those by 
Catharine Read, who died, in 1786; and who is 
chiefly known by her winsome delineations of the 
graces of the Gunning girls. We could readily 
judge from these that the girls were attractive. 



I06 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

There is a genial graciousness in the face of 
she of Coventry, while the Scotch duchess is 
possessed of a persuasive sweetness of mien. 
The mob-cap frames a face almost faultless in 
the regularity of its features. For all the pleas- 
ant flavor of these facial charms, there is absent 
that peerless, regal loveliness, that compelling 
magnificence of presence, that hauteur which 
dazzles and enthrals. 

The originals of these various portraits have 
been retained at Croome Court, near Worcester ; 
the seat of the Coventry family, at Inverary 
Castle, Argyllshire ; and at Hamilton Palace. 

Three weeks after the romantic marriage of 
her younger sister, Maria Gunning was married 
to Georee William, who was Lord Deerhurst — 
"that grave young Lord," Walpole calls him — 
until 1750, when he succeeded to the Earldom 
of Coventry. He had been dangling about her 
for some time, and seemed nerved to the wedding 
by his Grace of Hamilton's precipitate action. 
The Earl took her for a trip on the Continent 
in company with Lady Caroline Petersham, 
that other great beauty. Neither caused much 



COUNTESS OF COVENTRY. IO7 

comment abroad, and Paris did not ratify the 
repute of London. My Lady was at a disad- 
vantage from her ignorance of the French lan- 
guage. She complained, too, of the arbitrary 
rule of her husband in not allowing her red 
nor powder, so much in vogue with the Parisian 
beauties. It is told how he saw her appear at 
a dinner with some on, and took out his hand- 
kerchief, and there tried to rub it off. But her 
fame abated not in England. Crowds continued 
to mob her whenever she appeared on the street. 
The King was pleased to order that whenever 
my Lady Coventry walked abroad she should 
be attended by a guard of soldiers. Shortly after 
this she simulated great fright at the curiosity 
of the mob, and asked for escort. She then 
paraded in the park, accompanied by her hus- 
band and Lord Pembroke, preceded by two ser- 
geants, and followed by twelve soldiers. Surely 
this outdoes the advertising genius of any latter- 
day American actress ! A shoemaker at Wor- 
cester gained two guineas and a half by exhibit- 
ing at a penny a head a shoe he had made for 
the Countess. She was in much favor at Court, 



I08 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES." 

and always circulated in an atmosphere of adula- 
tion and sensation. The Duke of Cumberland 
was an admirer, as was also, more emphatically, 
Fred St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, — "Billy 
and Bully" these two blades were termed. There 
was rumor, at one time, of the Earl seriously re- 
senting the attentions of Bolingbroke. The old 
King, too, showed her some courtesies; and the 
most oft-told anecdote of her is about His 
Majesty asking if she were not sorry the mas- 
querades were over. She assured him she was 
surfeited with pageants, — there was but one she 
wished yet to see, and that was a coronation. 
She saw it not, for the King outlived her by a 
fortnight. Had she but abstained from the use 
of paint and powder, her career would not have 
ended at the early age of twenty-seven. Blood- 
poisoning came from the use of it. Her beauty 
paled rapidly. My lady lay on a couch, a pocket- 
glass constantly in hand, grieving at the gradual 
decay. The room was darkened, that others 
might not discern that which so chagrined her. 
Then the curtains of the bed were drawn to 
guard her from pitying gaze ; and then, on a 



COUNTESS OF COVENTRY. IO9 

September day, in 1 760, the pathetic end came. 
Over ten thousand people viewed her coffin. 
Sensationalism even after the drop of the cur- 
tain ! The Countess left four children, two sons 
and two daughters. Of these, Anne, four years 
old at her mother's death, was one of the children 
whom George Selwyn showed much kindness 
to. The Earl married again, the second Count- 
ess being Barbara, daughter of Lord St. John of 
Bletsoe. George William, the son of Maria, 
came to the earldom in 1809. 

In an ode on the death of Maria the poet 
Mason wrote : — 

" For she was fair beyond your brightest bloom 

(This Envy owns, since now her bloom is fled) : 
Fair as the Forms that, wove in Fancy's loom, 

Float in light vision round the Poet's head. 
Whene'er with soft serenity she smiled, 

Or caught the orient blush of quick surprise, 
How sweetly mutable, how brightly wild, 

The liquid lustre darted from her eyes ! 
Each look, each motion, waked a new-born grace 

That o'er her form its transient glory cast : 
Some lovelier wonder soon usurped the place, 

Chased by a charm still lovelier than the last." 




In these latter days can we imagine a lawsuit, 
costing contestants thousands of pounds, over 
the right to a certain heraldic charge ? In the 
fourteenth century Sir Robert Grosvenor was 
the defendant in such a suit, and we read of 
Chaucer, John of Gaunt, Owen Glendower, and 
Hotspur being witnesses before the High Court 
of Chivalry, Sir Robert established his defence, 
and since those days the Grosvenors have ever 
held a high rank in the nobility of England. 
Quite as proud a patrician position was held 
through the centuries by the family of Gower. 
In the early part of this century, the heir of the 
Grosvenors espoused the most beautiful daughter 
of the House of Gower, — Lady Elizabeth Mary 
Leveson Gower. This lady was the youngest 
daughter of George, the second Marquis of 



114 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

Stafford, who married, in 1785, Elizabeth, who 
was Countess of Sutherland and Baroness 
Strathnaver in her own right. The Marquis 
was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. 

The Lady Elizabeth Mary was born in 1797, 
and married, in 1819, Robert, Viscount Bel- 
grave, eldest son of the second Earl of Grosvenor. 
The portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence was 
painted in the year preceding her marriage. 

The Marquisate of Westminster had been 
created in 183 1, and in 1845, when the. Vis- 
count's father died, he succeeded to the title. 
He had entered Parliament in 18 18 as member 
for Chester. He spoke but rarely in the House, 
althou2:h a hard worker on committees. He 
greatly improved his vast London property, and 
had the credit of administering his estate with 
a combination of intelligence and generosity 
seldom seen. Of reserved habits and inexpen- 
sive tastes, he was averse to ostentation and 
extravagance. He died in 1869. His successor 
was his son (born in 1825) the present Duke, 
who was elevated to a dukedom in 1874. He 
is one of the wealthiest peers in the kingdom. 



COUNTESS GROSVENOR. II5 

is a man of great taste, and has patronized the 
arts with almost a Medician munificence. 

The seat of the family is the renowned Eaton 
Hall, near Chester; that stately mansion set in 
the centre of a country rich in pastoral beauty. 
Its enlarg^ement and beautification was begun 
by the second Earl in 1802, and has been 
carried on by its present lord until it is now 
the most magnificent of all the modern man- 
sions of the nobility. G. F. Watts's heroic 
equestrian statue of Hugh Lupus, the founder 
of the family and a nephew of William the 
Conqueror, challenges admiration as one enters 
the grounds. There is no great picture gallery 
in the Hall for that is at Grosvenor House 
in London, but the family portraits are here. 
Let into panels of the dining-room are por- 
traits from the time of the first Earl, who was 
painted by Gainsborough. The Viscount Bel- 
grave and his lady were painted by Pickers- 
gill, in 1825, — this picture of the latter being 
much inferior to Lawrence's, — while the pres- 
ent generation was painted almost wholly by 
Millais, — that of Constance, the Duke's first 



Il6 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

wife, being especially fine. Leslie, in 1833, ex- 
ecuted a group of the Grosvenor family. 

Lawrence and Hoppner were to the regency 
what Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney were 
to the early days of the reign of George III., 
as painters of the patrician beauties. What a 
marvellous mass of records of fair women these 
five have left us! — Reynolds, supreme in style, 
painting the character as seen through the fair 
mask of the flesh ; Gainsborough, superbly pic- 
turesque, and a faithful limner withal ; Romney, 
impressively picturesque, too, a fine colorist, im- 
aginative, and but now, a century later, coming 
into his proper meed of praise ; Lawrence, ele- 
gant, charming, — a courtier indeed; Hoppner, 
through many years a close rival of Lawrence. 
To Hoppner we are indebted for the visible 
evidence of the beauty of many who had repute 
as fair women. There is that piquant Jane 
Elizabeth, Countess of Oxford, who greets us 
in the National Gallery. Then that dark-eyed 
and winsome Lady Kenyon, who was one of the 
reigning belles, on canvas, at the Grafton Gallery 
show in London this year. In this exhibit, too, 



COUNTESS GROSVENOR. 



117 



was his "Mademoiselle Hillsberg," — a tall and 
dark dancing woman, which he regarded as his 
best work. Then there is that group of noble 
dames by him, which were engraved by Charles 
Wilkin and published under the title " Bygone 
Beauties," — Lady Charlotte Buncombe; Vis- 
countess St. Asaph ; Lady Charlotte Campbell, 
daughter of Elizabeth Gunning; Viscountess 
Andover; Lady Langham ; the Countess of 
Euston, one of the three beautiful Ladies 
Waldegrave, painted by Reynolds ; the Duchess 
of Rutland. These are indeed " a select series 
of ladies of rank and fashion." And with these 
must be classed that sweet ideal face of Mrs. 
Arbuthnot, known as " Marcia." At this late 
date it gives us greeting from how many a 
parlor wall ! Its tender charm makes perpetual 
appeal to the passer-by from how many a print- 
shop window ! 

There seems to have been bitter feeling 
between Hoppner, who was an intense Whig, 
and Lawrence, who knew no politics, but was 
all thino^s to all men. " The ladies of Lawrence 
show a gaudy dissoluteness of taste, and some- 



Il8 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

times trespass on moral as well as professional 
chastity," and " Lawrence shall paint my mis- 
tress and PhilHps my wife," were the two rapier 
phrases Hoppner thrust at his rival. But it is 
recorded that thenceforth Lawrence's commis- 
sions from fair sitters multiplied. 

Sir Thomas was a finished flatterer. No man 
ever knew better, except it was Lely, how to pay 
the compliment of the brush. This form is the 
substantial, the lasting compliment for which 
golden guineas are gladly paid. Grace and 
elegance are the hall-mark of his every picture. 
But the artist was a courtier in speech and 
manners as well, and this got him into trouble 
once. He was attentive to the ill-used Princess 
Caroline, — markedly attentive ! A royal com- 
mission inquired into his conduct, but absolved 
him from the charges of wrongdoing. When 
Lady Grosvenor, who had become Marchioness 
of Westminster, was an old lady, in 1881, she 
wrote in a letter to Lord Leveson Gower her 
recollections of the painter: "His manners were 
what is called extremely 'polished' (not the fault 
of the present times). He wore a large cravat, 



COUNTESS GROSVENOR. II9 

and had a tinge about him of the time of 
George IV., pervading his general demeanor. 
... I should not say he was amusing, but what 
struck me most, during my two hours sitting in 
Russell Square, was the perfection of the draw- 
ing of his portraits. Before any color was put 
on, the drawing itself was so perfectly beautiful 
that it seemed almost a sin to add any color." 
This portrait of her, which was painted at this 
one sitting, is considered the very best Lawrence 
ever painted. The head has distinction and hau- 
teur, albeit the face is sweetly ingenuous. And 
the eyes ! Well, Sir Thomas always excelled 
here ! Never, since Titian, has painter given 
us such "strange sweet maddening eyes," — 

" Fathomless dusk by night, the day lets in 
Glimmer of emerald, — thus those eyes of hers ! " 

This picture now hangs in the gallery of Staf- 
ford House, and was mezzotinted by Cousins, in 
1844, and included in the published collection 
of the artist's works. This volume is representa- 
tive of the artist. It opens with that perennially 
delightful picture of the " Calmady Children," 



I20 SOME OLD-TIME BEAUTIES. 

called " Nature," — one of the very best and 
sweetest representations of child life ever made. 
Here is the elemental artlessness of nature, and 
here the beatitude of innocence. Another child- 
picture is the portrait of Lady Emily Cowper, 
afterwards Lady Ashley, called " The Rosebud." 
Among the ladies shown are Lady Leicester, 
Lady Lyndhurst, and Lady Georgiana Agar 
Ellis, the picture of the latter being surpassing 
in its elegance. That majestically maternal pic- 
ture is here of Lady Gower and Lady Elizabeth 
Leveson Gower, — not our Elizabeth Mary, but 
she who became Duchess of Argyll. 

The Countess of Grosvenor was a lady of 
high character and most affable manners, and 
held her exalted position with a dignity of de- 
meanor and a bearing worthy of a descent from 
the noble Gowers, lords of Sittenham. Her 
residence latterly was Motcombe House, near 
Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire. She lived on until 
our own day, dying at the age of ninety-four. 

In 1840-41 she accompanied her husband on 
a yacht voyage in the Mediterranean, an enter- 
taining account of which she published In two 
volumes. 



COUNTESS GROSVENOR. 121 

She was a keen politician, as so many ladies 
■of rank are in England. In 1873 Lady West- 
minster's son, then Lord Robert Grosvenor, 
spoke in favor of the Liberal candidate for 
Shaftesbury. The candidate told her tenants 
that he believed her ladyship was not averse to 
his candidature. It was putting his fingers into 
the den of the apparently sleeping lioness. She 
wrote sharply : " I beg to undeceive you. I am 
most anxious for the success of the conservative 
cause, connected as it is with the preservation of 
our religion and our loyalty to our Queen." 




